The next Alexa device from Amazon just may house a 7″ touchscreen and be “more premium.” Amazon’s Echo series of devices have become very popular and from the sounds of reviews, very reliable and better than Siri or Google Assistant. Amazon has had a leg up in this space over both Apple and Google and they aim to keep that position by introducing a new Alexa device that will have an articulating touchscreen. Amazon has also recently given the green light for third-party manufacturers to integrate Alexa into their devices and some people have even hacked Alexa into strange novelty items.

The new device will have a touchscreen measuring about seven inches, a major departure from Amazon’s existing cylindrical home devices that are controlled and respond mostly through the company’s voice-based Alexa digital assistant, according to two people familiar with the matter. This will make it easier to access content such as weather forecasts, calendar appointments, and news, the people said. They asked not to be identified speaking about a product that has yet to be announced.

Amazon’s planned expansion of the Alexa-powered line coincides with growing competition from Alphabet Inc.’s Google Home speaker and Apple Inc.’s interest in building a home device using its Siri digital assistant.

Besides integrating an articulating touchscreen, the device is said to have a higher quality speaker and better build quality. The next Alexa device from Amazon could come as early as the first quarter of 2017 but there’s nothing official as of yet. Apple is working on their own Siri speaker and Google just released Google Home with Google Assistant so it will be interesting to see how they react to this.

What do you think of Alexa? Better than Siri and Google Assistant? Would you buy a touchscreen enabled Alexa device? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

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